Advise on damage caused by tenants

lynn09

We have a property that we rent out to tenants.
We recently went to do an inspection and found that their cats have caused damage to the living room carpet.
In the tenancy agreement it says that the house will need to be proffesionly cleaned on moving out, including cleaning of carpets.
We might replace the flooring to a laminate anyway, (but we have not said anything to the tenants)
Any ideas on how we should handle it.

Thanks

Doozergirl

Why were you considering changing to laminate?

lil_me

When do they move? Have they stated what they wish to do about it? Was it professionally cleaned before they moved in? Cleaning doesn't mention damage of course. What sort of damage is it? Was the carpet brand new?

lynn09

Carpet has been there for about 10 + years (again tenants don't know that)and we would have been looking to replace it at some point anyway.
Carpet has been pulled away from wall and shredded!
Were thinking laminate as it might be a bit more hardwearing

guppy

Technically, you can only claim for something that has actually caused you loss (as I think you have realised, hence the question).

If you're going to rip up the carpet anyway, you haven't suffered any loss.

tsstss7

lynn09 wrote: »

Carpet has been there for about 10 + years (again tenants don't know that)and we would have been looking to replace it at some point anyway.
Carpet has been pulled away from wall and shredded!
Were thinking laminate as it might be a bit more hardwearing

Laminate is hideous and would certainly put me off a place. It's not all that hard wearing either - you could get alot longer life out of a decent quality carpet.

PasturesNew

Not what was originally asked, but, my opinion anyway.

I like laminate. All the fluff you can see ... and it wafts to the edges. Quick whip round the edges with a damp cloth and it's kept clean almost daily. Carpet traps dirt and you have to lug a noisy vacuum out and do the whole thing.

But laminate is noisy and slippy.

mizzbiz

cheap laminate is atrocious and easily damaged. It gets huge gauges out of it when you move furnityre or have a stone stuck on your shoe or something, so if you do replace, them you need to buy a very good quality one if it is to be hardwearing. If you don't, you'll end up taking deposit money from loads of innocent tenants who would have to have not actually lived in the place not to damage it.

Regarding the carpet, if it is actually damaged then really it would be harder to get decent tenants in afterwards. I often post on here to amateur landlords who supply cheap crap then want to rob their tenants of hundreds of pounds so they can buy something better in replacement. It's a game I abhor. However, if the carpet is torn and shredded then you have a case to take some money, whether or not you were going to replace it anyway.

I would say though, if the carpet was 10yrs old and was already in shoddy condition, and because of this you were thinking of replacing it, it would be unfair to take money from the tenant for contribution (or full payment!!!!) towards this.

If the tenants have not yet moved out, how do you know they won't have it professionally cleaned when they do? It's unfair to suggest that this should be done during the tenancy, unless of course, this is something they expressly agreed to, which I doubt.

Debt_Free_Chick

Just note the damage - write to the tenants and note it.

Deal with it when they leave.

Debt_Free_Chick

To be fair, you should also "note" other issues that are not for the tenants' attention, but need the LL (you) to see to.

Every inspection I've had, has had a list of "matters" with a note as to whether they are for the tenant or the LL to deal with

lynn09

Was just wondering how to broach it with the tenant as it is technically damage - carpet was not in that bad a condition but we would def need to do something about it when they do move out.